Rancho 9000 Replacement

I guess it is a good news bad news kind of thing. I recently noticed by VX was bouncing more around one of my favorite sweeping left hand curves (thanks to the Michigan potholes). This morning I noticed a liquid on the passengers side of my gas tank. I took to my mechanic who confirmed that my Rancho shock had sprung a leak, seal, gasket, whatever. He quoted me a price to replace the broken one and the other rear one at the same time. I got home and checked Rancho's web site and it states they come with a lifetime warranty on defects. Well I don't have the receipt from 2003 when I had them installed, but I called the Sear's shop that installed them and they pulled my records up on the computer. I took it in and they are going to replace the broken shock and replace the other one since it is 7 years old at no cost as well (I do have to pay the labor cost). So I get two new shocks for a lower price which is cool. I am just concerned that the right rear is the same shock that went bad the first time when I had the Ranchos put on initially. So save those receipts for the future you never know.

Mike

Sounds like a good news good news story to me; everything goes bad eventually, either by defect or age, so anytime you can get one of those things paid for that's great. Crossing my fingers that my DieHard Platinum dies at 4 years lol.

Thanks for sharing this info.

I bought my current ranchos also at sears,so wehenever any one goes bad i know what to do.

glad to hear things went smoothly:thumbup: Im a service writer and mechanic at a sears auto, so i like to hear that they didnt give you any problems. we replace monroe shocks often under warranty. actually havent had problems and any ranchos yet though.

Why did you have to pay labor? Shock changeout is 5 minutes or less, only need two wrenches and MAYBE a mallet. Don't even need a jack.

Most shops don't consider labor a negotiable option; in fact, their computers generally have a fixed labor cost assigned to every type of work, so you get charged for an hour whether it takes 30 minutes or 90 minutes.

I think marlin was asking why the op didn't install the shocks at home..

If not though labor for shock install should have only been 20 per shock if the shocks were purchased instead of warrantied, install would have been free . Not sure if all shops work this way but at sears mechanics work on commission. They get paid a percentage of the labor charged to the customer with the exception of oil changes and batteries. They have a set rate based on the vehicle, so if no labor cost, your mechanic isn't getting paid.

The warranty is from the shock company and they cover the product only. Unless it was installed improperly the installer should not have to eat the extra labor. Of course with pro rate its different. I beleive they sell batteries that will last 4 years under a 5 year warranty so you come back to them and get a new one and they knock 20% off as pro rated. (hell wait for a sale you can even do better. But know you have a new 5 year battery you feel good they honored the warranty and in 4 more years you come back and get a battery from them again.

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Originally Posted by etlsport

I think marlin was asking why the op didn't install the shocks at home..

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You know me so well. I know that not all folks can do mechanical labor (well they can, except when prohibited by injuries or whatever, its a matter of confidence and trying stuff. Seriously, 2 years ago, the most I did was oil changes and brake pads...now, there isn't much I won't try, the VX shop manual is decent on most things)

The warranty is indeed through Ranch and it says the warranty applies as long as it is installed on the original vehicle and owned by the person who had the shocks installed. I didn't really think about removing them, as this is my only means of transportation, and didn't want to deal with - give me these shocks and I will bring in the old ones later. They didn't have these in stock so I will get them installed next week, we will see about the cost and I will let you know after the fact.

mike

Well it turns out to be good news.. The sears autocenter called and the shocks were in, this morning I took it in and they replaced both rear shocks at no cost, parts or labor. Glad to actually have a story turn out positive after reading all the not so fortunate tales lately.